Ban life term tenancies for social housing

I think it is very unfair that life term tenancies get a social house for life, able to pass onto their partner/ family member. If they want to buy the house the government will let them buy it at a discounted rate. If I want to buy a house will the government offer me such a discounted rate? No. I live in a council estate, my parents bought the flat at the market rate not a discounted rate. Everyone who lives in the council estate and live in social housing are either at working age but not working or retired. Why shouldn't people in social housing get an unfair advantage over people who are renting and saving up for a deposit. You might as well try quit your job, have a child, get a social house, get a secured tenancy, get another job, buy the house at a discounted price when you are ready.

Reply 1

nulli tertius

First of all the discount has to be earned over many years so your strategy won't work.

Of course for the last few years the government was helping first time buyers to buy private sector new houses under the "Help to Buy" scheme.

The key point is that the government (every government) has wider interests at stake than making sure nobody gets a penny piece advantage over you.

"Right to buy" was introduced to help build a stable property owning democracy. The government is looking to remove lifetime tenancies, not because they give tenants an advantage over someone else but because they are now perceived to hinder economic mobility.

Reply 2

Len Goodman

Yes, I agree. Social housing should just be temporary accommodation only to be used when tenants are unemployed and struggling financially. After a year or so they should be turfed out and made to find their own place, whether they have the money or not.

Reply 3

nulli tertius

Original post by Len Goodman

So you want council estates to consist entirely of uncommitted short term residents with no money to fulfil their maintenance obligations?

Because in the real world, we are not looking at one or two council houses and flats but hundreds or thousands of them forming the entire customer base of neighbourhood shops, and the entire catchment area of schools and doctors' surgeries.

Reply 4

Len Goodman

Original post by nulli tertius

Yes, people shouldn't have to permanently rely on the nanny state for housing. The vast majority of council houses should be sold off and turned into private rentals.

Reply 5

nulli tertius

Original post by Len Goodman

Yes, people shouldn't have to permanently rely on the nanny state for housing. The vast majority of council houses should be sold off and turned into private rentals.

Which are two completely different issues from the one I asked you about.

Reply 6

username1799249

Surely the fairer solution would be to build sufficient housing such that the cost is affordable? You are suggesting people be thrown on the street so that you get a bite at the cherry but what of those you displaced?

Reply 7

nulli tertius

Original post by ByEeek

I don't think the OP is suggesting that. The OP doesn't want their house. He is quite happy for the property to be let to someone else. The OP wants them thrown out because lifetime cheap housing is not an advantage he enjoys. It is a strange sort of politics of envy.

Reply 8

username1799249

Original post by nulli tertius

That was my thought. What is the point of evicting someone for someone else. The trouble with the new policy is that if you earn above a certain threshold you will be evicted. This surely is a policy to keep the poor down, although it was a bit of a travesty that Bob Crow on £140k a year lived in a council house.

Reply 9

nulli tertius

Original post by ByEeek

although it was a bit of a travesty that Bob Crow on £140k a year lived in a council house.

Perhaps in his generation but not necessarily in an earlier one. In the world from 1945 to the 1980s with virtually no new private sector tenancies, you had a much wider range of council house tenants.

I was brought up on a council estate. I had an RAF officer's son in my class at school as well as the son of the man who ran the city's buses. The school backed on the house of someone who wrote prime-time television drama. I used to walk to school past the house where the mother of an England footballer lived.

None of that was unusual. My parents were on the Council waiting list (a real waiting list-you went on at the bottom and stayed on it until you came to the top) for five years before they got the house. The key point is that everyone getting a house would have been in employment